Many people lack a factual understanding of events in our region because the media report them inadequately. We blog here because our daughter Malki, murdered at the age of 15 in a restaurant massacre in Jerusalem, was a victim of jihadist hatred and barbarism. For jihadism and terrorism to end in Israel, New York, Madrid, London and everywhere else, people first need to understand the scale on which it is happening and why. This ongoing war is killing us.

Monday, November 30, 2015

30-Nov-15: Radio that kills: silencing it

IDF forces raid the Al-Hurriyya radio station in Hebron
on November 21, 2015 [Image Source]

Unless you have been taking at face value those scurrilous news reports that focus exclusively on Palestinian victimhood in this violent times of stabbings and rammings and shootings, you will know that a disproportionate number of the terrorists/attackers in the current wave of lethal violence come from Hebron. An article by William Booth ["Hebron becomes the center of Palestinian violence", Washington Post, November 7, 2015] says

Israel and the Palestinian Authority see Hebron as a center of influence for the militant movement Hamas in the West Bank. Hamas has been egging on violent resistance on its Web sites and via the media but has been careful not to have its leaders at the forefront. There have been more than 20 Palestinian attacks in Hebron center over the past three weeks.

He might have added (though he didn't) that a steady stream of young men and women from Hebron have fanned out throughout Israel to carry out vicious terrorist attacks on, mainly, Israeli civilians. Many of these attackers were killed by alert Israeli security.

Israel's security authorities have noticed. And one of the ways they are responding is to seek out and silence Hebron's incitement to kill. There's no shortage of it in Hebron. And it's not that hard to locate.

One of the most potent outlets for the hateful, murderous anti-Jewish messaging is local radio. Hebron has several radio stations. Three of them have been forcibly shut down by IDF action in the past month. A Palestinian Arab source says there are"90 local radio stations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as 18 TV stations". Those numbers are substantially larger than the numbers of Israeli radio and TV outlets.

Nominally under the control of Fatah/PLO and the Palestinian
Authority, the dominant presence of Hamas in Hebron is an
open secret. This image shows a Hamas rally in the city during
2013 [Image Source]

Advocates for the Palestinian Arab right to kill and maim in the name of "resistance" - and there's no shortage of those either - are currently engaged in a full court press to paint Israel's suppression of the incitement to kill innocent civilians as an attack on democracy, a curtailing of free speech, the heavy hand of occupation and similar such familiar refrains.

Here's a sample of how some of the darker corners of the news reporting industry and the social media have depicted the recent silencing of Hebron-based incitement to kill:

Ayman Qawasma, chairman of [a] local council, sees the closure as a part of Israel's escalating violations against Palestinian media and journalists. Qawasama told local press that “we didn’t incite, we just reported Israeli daily crimes against our people in Hebron.” He added: “they want to silence our voice.” [Alternative News, November 4, 2015]

“The Israeli occupation forces have been providing a mountain of lies regarding the execution of Palestinians in claimed foiled attempted stabbings and Al Hurriyah radio station has been digging down for the truth. There has been nothing more devastating to the Israeli structure of lies than the revelation of the truth,” said the radio’s statement. “Our radio station has actively participated in showing yet again the ugly face of the Israeli occupation, especially in the flashpoint of the city of Hebron... We will not adhere to the Israeli military order and our broadcast will go just normally as if nothing had happened,” read the statement. ["Israeli shuts down a radio station in Hebron", Gulf News, November 3, 2015]

...The director of of Dream Radio station, Talab Al-Jaabri, stated that the Israeli occupation forces stormed the station, destroying equipment and damaging offices... Earlier this month, the Israeli occupation army shut down Radio Hebron and Al-Hurriya, two other Palestinian radio stations which have been accused of broadcasting anti-Israel content. ["Third Palestinian radio station closed by the IOF", Palestine News Network, November 9, 2015]

The reality is that Israel and Israelis are more than used to the "anti-Israel content" that emanates daily from a multitude of Palestinian Arab sources. The shutting of the Hebron radio stations is an attempt to address something much more harmful and life-threatening... to both sides.

Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors the media messaging from Palestinian Arab sources, published a translation into English today of several overt calls to murder and to the renewal of what it calls suicide bombings (we think human bomb attacks is a more accurate term) broadcast in recent weeks by Radio Hebron:

First a song:

"Blow up the executor's [Israel's] innards
Bring back the period of martyrdom-seeking (i.e., suicide bombing)
Rise and strap yourself with bombs."

"[Hebron] sacrificed a martyr several days ago in the popular uprising, and now it sacrifices another martyr, according to initial reports."
Song: "Blow up the executor's innards, bring back the period of martyrdom-seeking (Istish'had, i.e., suicide bombings), rise and strap yourself with bombs"
Announcer: "Two more martyrs (shahids) today are watering the soil of the Hebron district with their blood"
Song: "Write in dripping blood: death to Israel! Write in dripping blood: Death to Israel!"
[Radio Hebron Station, Oct. 29, 2015]

Referring to incitement-to-kill of this kind as "anti-Israel content" is disingenuous at minimum, and white-washes a process that has cost the lives of Hebron residents, as well as their Israeli victims. Reporting the claims of Palestinian Arab propagandists in a straight-faced manner as if the facts were documented and beyond controversy makes the media channels that engage in this kind of thing complicit.

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THIS ONGOING WAR is not part of the activity of the Malki Foundation which was founded by us, Frimet and Arnold Roth of Jerusalem, on September 9, 2001. But it is inspired by the same tragic circumstances. The Malki Foundation (also known by its Hebrew name: Keren Malki) is a memorial to the life of our daughter, Malki. She's in the photo below this paragraph. Malki was murdered at the age of 15 in a massacre in the centre of Jerusalem carried out by Hamas.

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This Ongoing War: About this blog

Many people lack a factual understanding of events in our region because the media often report them inadequately. Our daughter Malki, murdered at the age of 15 in a restaurant massacre in Jerusalem, was a victim of jihadist hatred and barbarism. For jihadism and terrorism to end in Israel, in New York, in Madrid, in London and everywhere else, people first need to understand the scale on which it is happening. This ongoing war is killing us.